In July 2007, the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA) released the results of The Large Truck Crash Causation Study (LTCCS). The goal of the study was to pin point the cause of the estimated 141,000 fatal or injury accidents involving large trucks in the 33 months between April 2001 and December 2003. The LTCCS closely examined a sample of 963 crashes which resulted in 249 deaths and 1123 injuries. For each crash, up to 1000 data elements were collected, including the condition of the truck driver and other drivers involved in the crash, the behavior of the drivers during the crash, the condition of the vehicles, the condition of the road, and the weather.

Of the crashes in which a heavy truck was identified as the primary reason for the crash, 87% were attributed to a failure of the driver, 10% were attributed to a failure of the vehicle, and 3% were attributed to environmental conditions. The LTCCS also identified the factors most strongly associated with the risk of a truck crash, including cargo shift, driver illness, illegal maneuvers, following traffic too closely, and driver inattention. Hopefully, the results of the LTCCS will serve as a guide to law makers in the creation of appropriate safety regulations to protect the motoring public.

A summary of the LTCCS is available here. For complete information about the LTCCS, including the original data, the methodology, and the resulting report to Congress, visit the LTCCS website here.

This entry was posted on Thursday, October 30th, 2008 at 7:48 am and is filed under Truck Crash Investigation, Truck Safety News. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Responses are currently closed, but you can trackback from your own site.